Kids and Dogs
Kids and Dogs... everyone wants their kids to grow up with a family dog... but so so many of these scenarios end up in tragedy. We get asked at least once a week to save a dog that has nipped at the children in the family. "He bit out of the blue" we hear, and there was "no reason!"
We are incredibly hesitant to place any of our dogs in homes with children because if an incident occurs, it ends badly for the dog. Dogs communicate through body language - no conversation. It is incredible how well they have adapted to our species since we are verbal species that communicate along the lines of ape lineage (hugging, petting, vocalizing) and dogs have developed an incredible way of communicating via head turns, eye movement, lip licking, body curving.
Kids have the worst body language in dog language... they walk right up to dogs, look them in the eye, hug them or pet them. Canines don't naturally hug or pet unless it is humping - which is a stress reaction and not well accepted by most dogs - and a dog only walks straight up to a dog and looks in it the eye if it means business.
Please read these articles and videos on kids and dogs: http://woofwork.ca/blog/reading-dogs-12-will-he-bite/
We are incredibly hesitant to place any of our dogs in homes with children because if an incident occurs, it ends badly for the dog. Dogs communicate through body language - no conversation. It is incredible how well they have adapted to our species since we are verbal species that communicate along the lines of ape lineage (hugging, petting, vocalizing) and dogs have developed an incredible way of communicating via head turns, eye movement, lip licking, body curving.
Kids have the worst body language in dog language... they walk right up to dogs, look them in the eye, hug them or pet them. Canines don't naturally hug or pet unless it is humping - which is a stress reaction and not well accepted by most dogs - and a dog only walks straight up to a dog and looks in it the eye if it means business.
Please read these articles and videos on kids and dogs: http://woofwork.ca/blog/reading-dogs-12-will-he-bite/